The Conference on Population, Development and Family Planning held in Burkina Faso February 8–11, 2011, marked a turning point in repositioning family planning (FP) in francophone West Africa. This region is facing some of the lowest contraceptive prevalence rates (12% on average), some of the highest unmet needs (1 out of 4 women), as well as high maternal mortality rates (on average 510 deaths per 100,000 live births). In order to bridge those gaps, governments, donors, and the international community need to invest more resources in reproductive health and provide increased technical support in that area. With this in mind, the nine francophone West-African countries created the Ouagadougou Partnership and agreed on a common goal: To achieve one million additional female users of modern contraceptive methods by the end of 2015. To that end, the various countries involved developed costed action plans, which are now referred to as key resources by all the stakeholders involved in RH/FP initiatives at the country level. To monitor the implementation of these action plans, the nine countries and their partners agreed to convene annual meetings. The 4th annual meeting that was held December 9–11 2015 was of paramount importance for the Ouagadougou Partnership, as 2015 marked the end of the “Urgency for Action” phase that lasted from 2011 to 2015 and paved the way for a new phase which will be completed in 2020. During that time, the OP countries developed a vision, a mission, and new objectives for the coming years. This report provides an overview of the 4th annual meeting that was held at Cotonou’s Azalaï Hotel December 9- 11, as well as recommended actions and initiatives to be implemented going forward.

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